It's no secret that charities of all sizes have had to rethink their gala, auction, and fundraising event strategy in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. How can we continue to set an event strategy - virtual or in-person - in light of COVID-19? What's changed, and how can we adapt?
My guest this week is an expert on events, auctions, and galas. Sherry Truhlar is President of Red Apple Auctions, a boutique auction firm focused on nonprofit galas. Since leaving her corporate marketing job, she’s worked as a cheeky auctioneer onstage and a trusted resource offstage for anyone seeking to improve the profitability of a fundraising gala. Though her public work has taken her to nearly every state and placed her alongside A-list celebrities, the bulk of her time is spent educating thousands of gala planners via her free Benefit Auction Ideas videos and newsletter.
What we cover in this episode:
Connect with Sherry:
About Julia Campbell, the host of the Nonprofit Nation podcast:
Named as a top thought leader by Forbes and BizTech Magazine, Julia Campbell (she/hers) is an author, coach, and speaker on a mission to make the digital world a better place.
She wrote her book, Storytelling in the Digital Age: A Guide for Nonprofits, as a roadmap for social change agents who want to build movements using engaging digital storytelling techniques. Her second book, How to Build and Mobilize a Social Media Community for Your Nonprofit, was published in 2020 as a call-to-arms for mission-driven organizations to use the power of social media to build movements.
Julia’s online courses, webinars, and keynote talks have helped hundreds of nonprofits make the shift to digital thinking and how to do effective marketing in the digital age.
Take Julia’s free nonprofit masterclass, 3 Must-Have Elements of Social Media That Converts
Take my free masterclass: 3 Must-Have Elements of Social Media Content that Converts
It's no secret that charities of all sizes have had to rethink their gala, auction, and fundraising event strategy in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. How can we continue to set an event strategy - virtual or in-person - in light of COVID-19? What's changed, and how can we adapt?
My guest this week is an expert on events, auctions, and galas. Sherry Truhlar is President of Red Apple Auctions, a boutique auction firm focused on nonprofit galas. Since leaving her corporate marketing job, she’s worked as a cheeky auctioneer onstage and a trusted resource offstage for anyone seeking to improve the profitability of a fundraising gala. Though her public work has taken her to nearly every state and placed her alongside A-list celebrities, the bulk of her time is spent educating thousands of gala planners via her free Benefit Auction Ideas videos and newsletter.
What we cover in this episode:
Connect with Sherry:
About Julia Campbell, the host of the Nonprofit Nation podcast:
Named as a top thought leader by Forbes and BizTech Magazine, Julia Campbell (she/hers) is an author, coach, and speaker on a mission to make the digital world a better place.
She wrote her book, Storytelling in the Digital Age: A Guide for Nonprofits, as a roadmap for social change agents who want to build movements using engaging digital storytelling techniques. Her second book, How to Build and Mobilize a Social Media Community for Your Nonprofit, was published in 2020 as a call-to-arms for mission-driven organizations to use the power of social media to build movements.
Julia’s online courses, webinars, and keynote talks have helped hundreds of nonprofits make the shift to digital thinking and how to do effective marketing in the digital age.
Take Julia’s free nonprofit masterclass, 3 Must-Have Elements of Social Media That Converts
Take my free masterclass: 3 Must-Have Elements of Social Media Content that Converts
Julia Campbell 0:00
The nonprofit Social Media Summit is coming back and we want you there. Save the dates November 2, and third 2022. And this year, their summit will be virtual. But that doesn't mean it won't be fabulous and the best part to participate in all of the live sessions, it's totally and completely free. So get on the early interest list to get notified when registration opens WWW dot nonprofit social media summit.com. That's nonprofits social media summit.com. Hello, and welcome to nonprofit Nation. I'm your host, Julia Campbell. And I'm going to sit down with nonprofit industry experts, fundraisers, marketers, and everyone in between to get real and discuss what it takes to build that movement that you've been dreaming of. I created the nonprofit nation podcast to share practical wisdom and strategies to help you confidently Find Your Voice. Definitively grow your audience and effectively build your movement. If you're a nonprofit newbie, or an experienced professional, who's looking to get more visibility, reach more people and create even more impact than you're in the right place. Let's get started.
Hello, everyone, welcome back to nonprofit Nation. I'm so excited to be here again with you today, wherever you're listening. And today's episode is all about nonprofit auctions, nonprofit Gallas, virtual events. Where are we going? Where have we been? What are we looking forward to in the future, and I have the preeminent nonprofit auction specialist and expert here today, Sherry Triller. She has many titles under her belt including certified meeting professional certified auctioneers Institute and that's the MBA for auctioneers, and Benefit Auctioneer Specialist. Sherry is president of red apple auctions, a boutique auction firm, focused on nonprofit Gallas, since leaving her corporate marketing job. She's worked as a cheeky auctioneer on stage and a trusted resource off stage for anyone seeking to improve the profitability of a fundraising gala. Through her public work has taken her to nearly every state and placed her alongside a list celebrities, we're going to have to talk about that. I want all of the information on that the bulk of her time is spent educating 1000s of Gala planners via her benefit auction ideas, videos and newsletter. We'll link to that in the show notes. She's spoken at many AFP regional conferences, and has been covered in the nonprofit times Florida sun, Sentinel Town and Country magazine, The Washington Post magazine, the Chicago Tribune, the vineyard Gazette and dozens of other resources. Sherry, welcome.
Sherry Truhlar 3:05
Thank you so much for that introduction. And for the invitation to visit today. Julio, thank you. It's really, it's nice to kind of meet a new sector, we might say, of the nonprofit space. I don't often talk to marketing folks.
Julia Campbell 3:19
Well, there are a lot of marketing folks listening. And they're often marketing and fundraising or they have some kind of combination of responsibilities. And I'm sure auctions and galleries and event planning fall underneath their purview. But my very first question is, what kind of a list celebrities have you met and who was the, I guess, who was the meanest and who was the nicest?
Sherry Truhlar 3:41
We wouldn't delve down. I haven't had any bad experiences. I will tell you this. I will be working now with Seth Meyers for the third year. And I have found him to be very accommodating and helpful. I'll just give you an example, where I thought it was really thoughtful. So in 2020, was the first year I worked with him. What happened in 2020 COVID happened. So we had a virtual Gala. The client was so excited because Seth was going to be a new addition to their event. This was something that was going to really elevate the entire experience for everyone. And then because of the pandemic, they needed to go virtual. And so they had hired an excellent production company. But there's a lot involved every virtual Gala, there's different types of technology that's involved, depending on what approach the nonprofit wanted to take. And so in this case, they had a pretty high end production facility. Seth was logging in from his in laws home, which was on the island of Martha's Vineyard. The production company was in a television station. I was logging in, at my house here in the DC area. And so there's a lot of stuff that was happening. When Seth speaks I wouldn't be able to hear him necessarily, because of the way the technology was, I had a queue, I would be told, but it wasn't like we could just go back and forth as easily as if we were in the studio together, right? So there's a delay a little bit or there's a delay, and then they have to like, kind of queue me and the production team would. So the concern was, from my perspective, you don't want to talk over Seth, right? People are coming to hear Seth, they do not want to hear the auctioneer talk over Seth. And so we had to kind of come up with this way of making sure that I wasn't over speaking during his time. And so Seth recognized that right away, and he said, You know what, Sherry, let's talk to the production company, maybe there's a way that I can suddenly float into your screen. And you can see that I want to interject something. And then you'll know to be quiet. And it was just like, he knew more about it than I knew as far as the technology goes. And he understood my concern that I didn't want to, like, just keep talking and talking when he wanted to be able to add something to the conversation. So his thoughtfulness and then kind of suggestions and like, I totally get it, let's do it this way. It'll make you look better. From the standpoint you'll know when to back off. It'll all work. And it did. It was great.
Julia Campbell 6:08
I love that, because I think it really does segue perfectly into what we're going to talk about today, how to change up everything in the light of what's going on, and how have things changed. So my first question is, how did you get into galleries and auctions? And where's your current focus?
Sherry Truhlar 6:30
Yeah, I originally got into it a bit in an accident environment, I wanted to learn how to talk fast, which is what is called a chant in the auction world. Most people just say, Oh, can you do that fast talk, but it is technically called a chant. And so I had done a search. I was working at General Electric at the time, but I did a Google search to find out if there was such a thing as auctioneer schools. And there are. So I took a week of vacation, I went to auctioneer school and while there, there was a speaker there who spoke about fundraising events. And I did not realize that this was a thing. galas wasn't aware of it. So I came back to Virginia, DC area. And I went ahead and volunteered as a committee member on some smaller galas, to better understand what this whole thing was about. And from there, I just kind of took it. Class wise, I was rolling out some courses as I learned things. And the best way, of course, to understand something yourself is to teach. So I was learning all of that, and teaching all of that and eventually getting better about the auction stage presence. And eventually, you know, 1520 years later, this is where I am. But it really was just a curiosity as something like, oh, maybe I can learn how to talk fast. Wouldn't that be fun. And then lo and behold, we have a great speaker there who really widens my eyes and to a larger field. And I'm like, wow, this is, this is something that I think would be a lot of fun. So that was it. Now where I am now. I'm doing nonprofit events. And I kind of say nonprofits, schools are part of that as well, in the spring season. It's a lot of school auctions in the fall season, it tends to be all nonprofit auctions, but it's really working with them. Whether that is a formal sit down black tie dinner, whether that is a more casual walk around a fair, maybe it's something that a fashion show with an auction component. So if there's an auction piece to it, I'll generally call that a gala. And because of that, if there's an auction or a funding need, which has 1000 Different names as well, that's where my bread and butter is. So working with my gala chairs, or development directors. But gala chairs is often part of the equation. They're in how to better create their event so that they raise more money and just have a better experience for the guests overall.
Julia Campbell 8:52
Wow. So you do live auctions? What are the different kinds of auctions I've only really worked on I work on the PTO. And I've done a ton of school auctions, but they've mostly been silent auctions. So which are your favorites? And do you think one is more effective than the next?
Sherry Truhlar 9:11
Well, if we're going to judge effectiveness by money raised, it would be live 100% live auctions, just in general, my clients are going to be earning over 100% of the donated value of an item in a live auction. Now, that's not to say that there's other costs that you've got to put forth when you're producing an event. But if we're just looking at a straight item by item, you're going to see greater success in a live auction if you're selling it because you're showcasing it right. You're putting the spotlight on it. I'm up on stage talking about it like it's the best thing since sliced bread. And we're putting people into an environment where they want that so it just it raises more but silent auctions and online auctions which are now that's being blurred as far as the line goes with COVID We now have our silent auctions which became online auctions. And prior to COVID, they were very separate things. You had an online auction and then you had a silent auction. Do you use paper bid sheets Giulia or do you find that at your school? Yeah,
Julia Campbell 10:11
at the PTO auction? Yeah, we do. And sometimes online, but depends on the school, I guess
Sherry Truhlar 10:16
So some of them are gonna have some software. And they're going to do it online. And I guarantee you over the last two years, it was online, if they were doing it, it was online, because they weren't bringing groups of people together to bid on paper, that's your silent, your online auctions are generally earning 50 to 65% of value. So if you have $100 item in a silent auction, or an online auction, generally that's going to be selling for 50 to $65. live auction over $100.
Julia Campbell 10:45
Because people get really excited about it.
Sherry Truhlar 10:47
Well, they do. Yeah. And it's the whole environment. And we you know, we can go down this path to have well galas, lots of work. And certainly I never convinced anyone to do an event, they are a ton of work. But if you're going to do it, then there's great ways to do it. And it's not just about the fundraising, but it's about the community building, bringing people together, educating them on your mission, giving people a chance to donate in other ways. You know, that's one of the things even as we talk about, people who are donating, some people out there may not be able to donate cash, but they can donate services, or they can donate something that they do all the time anyway, and contribute to your cars without having to pull out their wallet, so to speak. So that's one of the advantages. I think, too. That's nice. It's probably not even talked about enough of auctions, and particularly in smaller auctions, or small school auctions that are just getting started. You have a community of talent there that can be tapped, and make money from it. And it's not extraordinarily difficult for anyone, if you are all coming together in that way. Case in point, there's a church that I work with, and the church has all 18 to 30 year olds, and they get together and they do a service project every year. So they're raising money to give back to the church. But that money is dispersed to like families who maybe had a very difficult year, maybe, maybe Santa Claus isn't coming that year. So some of the money is given to that family. So presents can be purchased. Or maybe somebody lost a job and they need help paying the electric bill. So this group of 18 to 30 year olds gets together to do an auction. And the things that they donate are not seventh night stays at the Marriott in the British Virgin Islands. You know, I mean, these are the 18 to 30 year olds. So the types of things that they're donating are, I will bake a cake for you for three months. Or I'm going to do a drop off dinner party of a potluck that you can invite your friends over and have this fabulous meal. Or I know how to make noodles. I'm going to teach you how to make authentic noodles. I'm going to give you basic conversation classes in Russian, or woodworking projects like people, a lot of craft projects show up a lot of woodworking projects show up. And these are oil changes, I will change the oil in your car, I will give you a ride at 5am to the airport when no one else wants to.
Julia Campbell 13:11
Yes, I will bid on all of those things.
Sherry Truhlar 13:14
They raised $17,000, $17,000. In fact, they said it was a little bit of an embarrassment of riches, because they really didn't need that much. It was a service project back to the court. But you can do those sorts of things. And again, we're not talking about huge donations here.
Julia Campbell 13:30
So what types of items or experiences do you find work best for a live auction? What what are the trends? What are we seeing now?
Sherry Truhlar 13:41
I have a great resource for this that we will link to in your show notes. Because there's a guide that I pulled together every year called the auction item guide. It's the top 100 items I sold at events last year around the country that sold for over their value. So that's I'll certainly send that over.
Julia Campbell 14:00
What are the top two across the board?
Sherry Truhlar 14:03
Trips are your top sellers. Now if you ask me, what's probably the easiest seller, I would say dining experiences. Everybody eats. So there's always a place that you can celebrate an anniversary at dinner, you know, somebody's doing a dinner party, that's going to be an easy sell. But as far as Hi Sollers Where are you going to make big money? That's your trips.
Julia Campbell 14:26
And doesn't matter where necessarily are there certain places?
Sherry Truhlar 14:31
That's a good question. And it's so hard to know right now, because of the pandemic. So before the pandemic about maybe five, six years ago, when Cuba opened up. I was selling Cuba trips left and right. And then it shifted to Iceland. Iceland was this really trendy spot, and it was starting to go to Portugal before the COVID but now we've got a war in Europe. Last week we had carbon monoxide poison Being down in the Caribbean. So depending on who I'm talking to some clients, these things are going to resonate, others won't. So if I'm on the West Coast talking about Bali, that is an easier sell than if I'm on the East Coast talking about Bali, because it's a lot more expensive to get there. On the flip side, going to Europe has traditionally been easier on the east coast. But with some of the things going on over there, some people are hesitating. So I don't have a tried and true location right now, in prior years, I'd say all Italy, that's an easy sell. And it still is. But again, we've got a lot going on in Europe, you know, a Caribbean, Mexico, generally very easy sells on the East Coast, everyone likes to go. In fact, I think Mexico was the number one destination outside the US during the pandemic. So people still felt,
Julia Campbell 15:54
I think what you're saying is very relevant, because it encourages event planners and whoever is listening, marketers fundraisers to be very strategic, and not just accept necessarily anything or assume something's going to be a homerun, that we have to do our homework on our audience. And also, like you said, the East Coast like getting to Hawaii from the East Coast, was a lot harder than getting to Hawaii from Los Angeles. So I guess another question that I have is how do you get these items? So how do you get volunteers to procure these items, including experiences.
Sherry Truhlar 16:34
So the volunteers, there's usually a committee that is pulled together your procurement committee, ideally, who's going to work on these things. And what I like to do is suggest that the net is thrown wide. And then you figure out from that, where your live auction items are going to come from if you're having a live auction, and I realized that, you know, we've got lots of people listening, not every event has a live auction. In fact, I would say that there's a big chunk of people out there who do a silent auction with a funding need. They're not doing the live auction piece at all. But the nice thing about having procured items is that you can use them in multiple ways, including using them in a funded need, by the way. But so when you're talking to volunteers, I think the first thing is that you've got to help people are creative, but you've got to help them be creative. So what I like to do is if they've got their team together, because again, I'm not convincing them to do an auction at this point, they've come to me, they said they're gonna do an auction. So at this point, I'm like, Okay, we've got a volunteer, or we've got three volunteers, or you know, who knows, maybe we've got 20 volunteers. So we're working with them on the procurement. And I like to give some suggestions of categories that they should target, and a ton of examples, which is part of why that auction item guide came into play. Because years ago, I'm like, I need to pull some stuff together so that people understand what they should go target. Because if I don't provide this, they're going to come with me, giving me you know, $5,000 pieces of jewelry, or furniture, or they're going to say, hey, we've got this vasectomy that's been donated. So let's put that in the live auction, and I'm going to be tearing my hair out.
Julia Campbell 18:18
Did someone literally put a vasectomy in a live auction?
Sherry Truhlar 18:21
I have sold a vasectomy in the live auction. Wow. And I've sold Botox parties in the live auction. And I've sold plastic surgery for most groups, that is not going to be a great seller. So some of the things that we try to avoid our services, like professional services, home decorating, real estate services, tax services, accounting services you can get by having some handyman services in some live auctions. But for the most part services, don't put them in furniture. Don't put it in jewelry, I don't like to put jewelry in the live auction. Do I sell it in the live auction? Yes, we sell it. But I don't like to put it there. Because things like rugs and jewelry and furniture are all very personal to whether you like it or not. And we want to try to get generic things in the live auction.
Julia Campbell 19:16
Things that everybody will like.
Sherry Truhlar 19:18
Yeah, right, because that's part of what you want to create competition, you got to have at least two people to make an auction. So from that standpoint, you got to get stuff in there that works. So to kind of go back to your question, what do I do? So we start talking about categories. We talk about what works and what doesn't work. And then I give out a ton of examples. Because when people hear something, then they start to think, let me give you a great example. I was visiting with one group, and they did not have any dining. We just talked about dining. So I'll use this example. They did not have anything dining related in their live auction. So at that point, I said, Hey, we got to look at something. Don't you have anything? Maybe we can call a bunch of gift cards together from the restaurants right we can sell That is six months of dining. Maybe you've got a dinner party somewhere that I haven't seen. And I, you know, we can pull that together. And I said, Do you know anyone who bakes I said, maybe if you got someone who bakes, we can do you know, six months or a year's worth of desserts, a dessert a month for a year, something like that. And they all turned their head and they looked at the executive director, and they said, she bakes and she makes fabulous desserts. I mean, they're like organic chocolates and look gorgeous. I said, Well, would you be willing not to put you on the spot here? But would you be willing to donate, you know, a dessert a month? And she's like, Oh, I don't know, you think anyone would buy it? I'm like, yes, they will buy it. So she went ahead and donated a dessert a month for six months. And I talked to that thing up like it was the best things ever. This is the kind of desserts that you would see in a Georgetown bakery in a window. These are the kinds of things that get blown up and suddenly they've got a mail order business across the country.
Julia Campbell 21:00
Yep, on like a show on a baking show.
Sherry Truhlar 21:03
Exactly. That thing. So she said, Well, I don't know if anything I said, I said look, if it doesn't even sell, I will put the first bid in for $300. Well, that thing took off, it went up to I think 1600. And we sold it twice. We sold it twice. That's why I say to we're shining the light on it, we're putting it out on the pedestal, it's like you're walking into the jewelry store. And everybody's looking at that that's what the live auction does for any of the items that you put in. So in that case, though, that filled a hole that they needed. So I like to give a ton of examples, because then they can start to think about that. And they can go, Oh, I know somebody or I know someone. So dining is a good example for that. Because there are a lot of ways that you can do dining in a in an auction and make an impact. So that's something that I like to do. And then the other piece too, is just sometimes you want to start with easy wins.
Julia Campbell 21:57
I was gonna ask that what's the pace of the auction? Like, do you do like you just said, the easy wins, and then you go to the trip to Tuscany? Or how do you pace it?
Sherry Truhlar 22:06
Oh, for the live auction? Well, there? Oh, you know, I'm going to give you another link to for people who are more interested, I will give you a link to a blog post I did about two weeks ago that talks about this exact thing. But when you're looking at how to order the live auction, that's usually something your auctioneer should do, not the volunteers. Now if you've got a volunteer auctioneer, then you'll do it for them. But generally, we're looking for a bell curve. Generally, you know, we're talking about things like I asked questions, is the donor in the room or not? Is this a new donor that we want to make sure get some extra love? Is this something that we've sold in the past? Maybe it's been sold for eight years in a row? Boring? Maybe it's a brand new item? Is this something that's a group item? Or is it just something like you know, a couple's getaway because a group item we would sell later in the auction? Versus upfront, where is the value of the item, I don't want to put my most expensive items up front, I want to put something that's popular up front, but not necessarily my $8,000 trip, I want to work up to that, generally speaking, I want to mix and mingle. So I want to have a trip, but then I want to have a sporting thing. I don't want to put all of my trips in a row, can I double it? Can I sell two of them. Because if I can sell two of them, I don't want to start the auction with something I can sell two of because then the crowd immediately thinks everything can be sold twice. So there's a whole bunch of things that I kind of think about when I'm in I, I usually will work with the client and get a lot of information upfront. And then I go off on my own. I have my Excel spreadsheet, I start lining everything up. And I kind of slide this in here, slide that over here, kind of feel it for a bit like I kind of think about myself selling it on stage and what I would say and how it would go and I massage it and then I send it back to the client say okay, here's the order. Now they may choose to move things around a bit. They may say, Well, we really want to do this because you know, we found out Joe's gonna leave early. So we're gonna put Joe's item a little bit earlier because he has to rush out so you know if he needs to say anything then, but for the most part, they go with it.
Julia Campbell 24:13
Wow. So what if it's a nonprofit that doesn't have a professional auctioneer? Do you think a live auction could still be successful? What are some tips for holding a live auction during a gala during an award ceremony during a luncheon, whatever it might be? And how could a nonprofit just do it? Can they do it themselves?
Sherry Truhlar 24:36
They can. This initially when I first started my business I thought this would be something that I will offer to people is I have a volunteer auctioneer training program. And I pulled together this training program and I did go out I trained some volunteer auctioneers, like it's the gregarious board member. It's the dad. It's the mom at the school auction. So I have done some of this and in my program, what I talk about is, first off, you need to have support for that auctioneer, you cannot just let them go up there because there's too much going to go on. So we kind of assign roles to people. But what I work with the auctioneer specifically on, is I work with them on timing, I make it clear that they do not need to talk fast, that is not why they're being asked to do this event. So we talk about kind of a method that what you should say like, you know, your lead into the item. So what can you say about the item, that's just a quick lead in, like, oh, friends, you're gonna want to bid on this, or, Oh, you're gonna like this better than your money. Or, Oh, this is, you know, this is what you came for, then we describe the item, then we talk an end, there's kind of like for trips, there's a certain way to do that, and so forth, I just give them a model. That's the word I'm looking for. I'm given a model to kind of describe the item, and then give some suggested ways to start it. So that that way that you know, because if you throw out $3,000, and no one bids, that can be very uncomfortable. If your volunteer like what do I do? So, so you want to kind of give them a strategy for how to do the sale itself. And then meanwhile, you got your volunteers who are recording all of this, I give them some increments some examples for that. So like, you know, here's what I would say, if you're fat. If you're at $1,000, I think you should go in $100 increments, or 250, don't go and $50 increments at that point. If you're at $500, and you want to go in $50 increments, depending on the group, then that's fine. But yeah, that that they found that very helpful, which I didn't really initially give them at first. But then as I as they started to ask more questions, I realized in future trainings that that was something that they found helpful, because other you know, you don't want to be in $1 increments up there, you got it, you got to somehow push this along. And then how to know also to do the funding need, because some people feel uncomfortable asking for money from the stage. And in the funding, that becomes even more crucial in the live auction, you can kind of say, well, people are buying this with good hearts, but they are getting something in return. But when it comes to the fund money, then you know, that's not really the case. So you kind of need to have better language there.
Julia Campbell 27:14
Where our gala is going. What's the future for gala is we've been in this pandemic for two years, I think, I know, at least in Massachusetts, things are opening up. I just went to a wedding of 250 people in Toronto, I've been to conferences, where do you think galahs are going and how have they changed?
Sherry Truhlar 27:32
What I found interesting during the pandemic was that we had some great success with virtual galas. And what they found was that their net incomes in some cases were astronomically higher, to the point where it was the best gala ever hands down. And in other cases, it was solid, you know, so it, but it was never like, wow, that just bombed. Because the expenses were so low to produce the virtual Gala. And the other advantage was the high reach, you could really go far with these. So I had a conversation with some of my school clients when the school season kind of ended, talking to them about the future of school auctions. And there was a interest on behalf of those people to continue in some form or fashion, the virtual reach. They liked that part of it. You know, do you do a virtual gala every other year? Do you just make sure you do a hybrid event. But now that we're coming out of the pandemic, I haven't seen people run so fast away from virtual galas than they were running from a bull in a china shop. I mean, they were just like their man, they're getting rid of it. I have had a few clients, the same ones that I was visiting with after the school season ended last year, and they are going more hybrid. So we are including bidding from afar and donating from afar at the in person event. And we have found that to be pretty successful. It's still early. So I can't say that we've got a ton of data on it. But of the five, six half dozen events that I've done like that way, it's been positive, we'll see whether or not it continues into 2023. But I kind of feel like there's a real advantage to doing that. And I will say like one of my clients is continuing with a virtual gala not because of any other reason, other than the fact that they're a small organization. They're trying to grow nationally. It makes no sense for them to try to host a gala in Chicago and Miami and Dallas and these other locations, because they just don't have that kind of reach yet, but they can build with a virtual gala until they do have that kind of support in those other key sera cities. So, you know for them that's working in a different way to
Julia Campbell 29:53
wow well, Sherry I've really learned a lot and I'm going to take it back to the board. Today I work with and the PTO, certainly. But to the organizations out there, you've definitely piqued their curiosity, you've gotten them really excited. Where can they find you? Where can they learn more about you and work with you?
Sherry Truhlar 30:14
Well, I have a ton of resources at my website, that's red apple auctions.com. And, as mentioned, Julia, I'll go ahead and send you the auction item Guide link so that they can get in on that. Once you do I have a newsletter that I have people tell me Oh, I save this. Even if I don't read it every time I like to save it. Because I know that when it comes time for the gala season, I'm going to be starting to research all this stuff. So the newsletter is another great way to stay in contact with me as well. And recognizing, of course, that you're not doing the auction 12 months out of the year, you're usually doing it, I don't know, three to six months out of the year. So it's kind of a seasonal thing that we get to know each other better during parts of the year. And then we kind of go our separate ways.
Julia Campbell 30:58
Absolutely. I agree with that. I think that I definitely have labels in my email provider, where it's sort of like year end, or I have a given Tuesday label. I have like a Mother's Day campaign label because it's not year round. It's really kind of when you when you need it when you're thinking about it. Oh, another question. Really quick question. How far ahead? Should we plan our live auction?
Sherry Truhlar 31:23
totally dependent, totally dependent on your volunteer base? I've seen three women pull together outstanding successful galas in a short period of time. I mean, they can because they know what they're doing. They all have their roles, they crank it through. And that that can come together in as little as two months. But most people on it, most people are working starting to really crank it up about six months in advance, in part because if we go back to that whole idea of how do you get donations, there's some places online that you're going to request for donations. And these are, you know, free things, or they have limits as to you got to request at least four months in advance for us to consider you that sort of thing. Some of these national companies have those kinds of rules. So you need to get ahead of that in order to be able to be on their request list.
Julia Campbell 32:17
Sherry, thank you so much. Everyone follows Sherry Truhlar on LinkedIn, red apple auctions on the internet all over the interwebs. We will post all of these resources and links. Sherry is so great to finally virtually meet you. Thanks for being on.
Sherry Truhlar 32:35
Yeah, I look forward to meeting you in person.
Julia Campbell 32:44
Well, hey there, I wanted to say thank you for tuning into my show, and for listening all the way to the end. If you really enjoyed today's conversation, make sure to subscribe to the show in your favorite podcast app, and you'll get new episodes downloaded as soon as they come out. I would love if you left me a rating or review because this tells other people that my podcast is worth listening to. And then me and my guests can reach even more earbuds and create even more impact. So that's pretty much it. I'll be back soon with a brand new episode. But until then, you can find me on Instagram at Julia Campbell seven, seven. Keep changing the world your nonprofit unicorn